Results for "Chicago"

Gustavo Cortiñas: A Jazz Drummer's Call To Action

by Lawrence Peryer
July 19, 2025

Today, the Spotlight shines on drummer and composer Gustavo Cortiñas.Gustavo's latest album, The Crisis Knows No Borders (Desafío Candente Records), tackles climate change head-on through music that's both urgent and beautiful. Working with guitarist Dave Miller, saxophonist Jon Irabagon, and violinist Mark Feldman, he's created compositions that explore how global warming sparks conflicts, drives ...

Ethan Philion

Ethan Philion is an award-winning bassist, composer, and bandleader based in Chicago. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and DePaul University,  Philion has been praised by the Washington Post for his "well honed chops and astounding musicality” and his debut album, Meditations on Mingus, was commended as “a labor of conspicuous love and respect for a musical titan” by Downbeat Magazine. He has performed with an extensive list of jazz artists including Rufus Reid, Greg Ward, Dana Hall, Mark Feldman, Russ Johnson, Howard Levy, Ryan Cohan, Tito Carillo, Gary Bartz, Alfonso Ponticelli, Ernest Dawkins, Geof Bradfield, Dee Alexander, Mark Gross, Alyssa Allgood, Thaddeus Tooks, Victor Garcia, Mike Allemana, Mai Sugimoto, Paul Marinaro, and more.

Philion’s album Meditations on Mingus was released in 2022 and has garnered praise from publications including the Chicago Tribune, JAZZIZ, Jazzwise, WDCB, and more

Chad McCullough: Transverse

by Dan McClenaghan
July 13, 2025

Chance encounters can be fortuitous and fruitful. Trumpeter Chad McCullough, on a visit to Macedonia to convene with family, found his way into a small cafe in Skopje, the capital of Independent North Macedonia, where he encountered a local trio: pianist Gordon Spasovski, bassist Kiril Tufekcievski and drummer Viktor Filipovski. McCullough had his horn with him. ...

Adam Shead

Born: January, 1993

Adam Shead is an accomplished percussionist, composer, improviser, and performance curator based in Chicago. He frequently performs with the Stein/Smith/Shead trio, microplastique, and Cellular Chaos, and is a sought-after percussionist in the Chicago jazz and improvised music scene. For nearly a decade, Shead has curated performances at notable Chicago art galleries such as Slate Arts & Performance and Comfort Station, where he helps promote both emerging and established artists, enriching the local cultural landscape.

Shead has collaborated with prominent figures such as Marilyn Crispell, Roscoe Mitchell, Jason Stein, Damon Smith, John Dikeman, Angel Bat Dawid, Mary Oliver, and Molly Jones, amongst others. He has released music through various record labels, including Amalgam, Ears & Eyes, Scripts, Balance Point Acoustics, Shifting Paradigm, and Irritable Mystic. Shead is the founder and composer of the Adiaphora Orchestra, microplastique, and Adam Shead Quintet and works regularly as a sideman in such groups as Ben Zucker’s Fifth Season, the Jake Wark Quartet, and Undisclosed Sims. From 2018 to 2020 Shead curated and hosted the impro jam, a bi-weekly multi-disciplinary free improvisation jam session, at Slate Arts and Performance - from 2021 to 2022 the impro jam took place at Cafe Mustache.

'Many Moons' The New Album By Trumpeter Markus Rutz

June 17, 2025

Markus Rutz & Third Coast Sounds announce Many Moons, the latest musical expression from the well—regarded trumpeter and composer. The new work is the ninth album from Rutz following the recent albums Storybook (2023) and Penumbra (2024) and features music in small group recorded with contemporaries from the Chicago scene. The ensemble sound is reminiscent of ...

Ryan Cohan

Born: June 6, 1971

Throughout his critically acclaimed recordings as a leader and as a collaborator with numerous leading jazz figures and world-class ensembles, Ryan Cohan has masterfully walked the line of writer and player, proving himself time and again to be a composer of rare vision as well as a highly versatile, powerfully expressive pianist

Recognized for his “ingenuity and virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), Cohan’s expansive oeuvre ranges from solo piano pieces to works for symphony orchestra and scores for independent films. He has produced six albums of original compositions: Real World (Real World Music); Here and Now (Sirocco Jazz); One Sky (Motéma), named one of the year’s best recordings by the Chicago Tribune and a number of jazz publications; Another Look (Motéma), hailed as “a model for modern jazz piano albums” by ICON magazine; and The River (Motéma) which features Ryan’s sixty-minute suite inspired by his travels in Africa.

Anne Burnell: This Could Be The Start of Something Big

by Richard J Salvucci
June 3, 2025

This could be the Start of Something is a pleasant recording. It is a joint work by a pair of well-known Chicago cabaret singers, Anne Burnell and Mark Burnell. They are hardly novices, so the production is professional in every way. They are willing to take some risks as well. They handle “Joy Spring," a version ...

Frank R Lamphere

Born: August 4

Feb 17 2025 Singer-entertainer-recording artist Frank Lamphere has just released his latest
album Frank Songs, My Way. As the title implies, this is a Frank Sinatra tribute album that
includes fifteen "Sinatra songs" but that are distinct from the celebrated Sinatra versions!
Frank Lamphere has been honing his swinging style during his 25+ year singing career, in the
specialized genre nowadays referred to as traditional pop and jazz. A style that he learned or
more likely "absorbed" from the giants of American pop music (post World War II - 1970): Frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jack Jones, Buddy Greco, Tony Bennett and others.

Sharel Cassity: In the Spirit

by Katchie Cartwright
May 19, 2025

Even on an old familiar tune like Charlie Chaplin's “Smile" (1936), it is clear from note one that Sharel Cassity is a child of Bird, an altoist in the modernist tradition of Charlie Parker. Her first influence was actually her biological father, an organist, with whom she shared the stage in New Orleans at age 11, ...

Johnny Iguana

Johnny Iguana, together with his longtime songwriting/producing partner JQ, is the composer of the original score for the hit FX/Hulu series “The Bear.” Chicago is Johnny’s home, but he’s still an East Coast kid at heart.

He grew up in Philadelphia, where he studied piano from age eight and played piano and organ in blues bands from age 16. He moved to New York City at age 22, where he met one of his greatest musical heroes, Junior Wells. He was hired by Junior after auditioning live at the Boston House of Blues, and moved to Chicago in February 1994. He toured with the Junior Wells Band for three years, toured with Otis Rush and recorded with Carey (and Lurrie) Bell, Lil’ Ed and more.